As an apparatus for controlling a vehicle, an apparatus has conventionally been known that, upon detecting an inappropriate accelerator operation, e.g. an accelerator operation in which the driver presses excessively hard on the accelerator pedal, performs an output reduction process of setting the output from the engine to be lower than an output based on the amount of operation of the accelerator pedal.
Further, for example, an apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 is configured to give a warning to the driver upon detecting an inappropriate accelerator operation. This apparatus is configured such that upon detecting an inappropriate accelerator operation on the basis of the road gradient and the amount of accelerator operation, the apparatus determines whether the rate of change in vehicle speed as calculated from a value detected by a sensor of the vehicle, i.e. the amount of change in acceleration, is equal to or greater than a determination value. When the amount of change in acceleration is greater than or equal to the determination value, the apparatus gives a warning to the driver.